EP1109371A2 - Apparatus and method for dynamically limiting information sent to a viewing device - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for transporting user-restricted data from a gateway deviceto a handheld viewing device is provided. The gateway device includes an informationtranslator, content filters, and storage. The information translator delivers content from aninformation database coupled to the gateway to the handheld viewing device. A viewingcomponent of the handheld device receives all possible data from the gateway device thatthe handheld device is capable of viewing. The user of the handheld device is then able tomanually select certain portions of data through a user interface. Once the selection iscomplete, a series of comments are returned to the gateway device from the handhelddevice so that a subsequent viewing corresponds only to that information selected by theuser.

Description

BACKGROUND1.Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method that provide remote controlover information sent to a viewing device. The system and method provide control over thecontent or quantity of information sent to the viewing device. In particular, the informationmay be an Internet or Intranet world-wide web (WWW) page, with Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML), Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), Wireless MarkupLanguage (WML), or Java content. The remote viewing device may be a handheld, laptop,or palmtop device with a limited viewing space for the information being received, andpreferably connects to the Internet over a relatively low-bandwidth wireless radio network.

2.Description of the Related Art

Typically, handheld or palmtop devices have very limited viewing surfaces, limitedmemory available, slower processing speeds, and limited user inputs in comparison to largedesktop computer systems. These devices may also communicate over a bandwidth-limiteddata network, such as a wireless packet data network, a cellular network using a digitalpacket data protocol, or they may use a limited speed modem to download at speedsbetween 9600 and 28K bits per second (bps). For these reasons it is desirable to limit thedata these devices receive over the network or through the modem, particularly whenreceiving large data files, such as web pages that may include text, graphics, animations,multimedia files, or other interactive elements.

A known method for limiting data transfer to such a viewing device involvesrestricting the transmittal of graphic information. By providing a specific configurationsetting available on most Internet browsers, a user can specify that only text information isfetched by the browser. The graphical portions of the web page are left behind. This methodis indiscriminate, however, and leaves the user with little useful control; simply an on or offswitch for changing the type of information viewed. In many cases there are pieces of textthat are not desired in the information stream, and pieces of graphics that are desired in theinformation stream, but the user has no control over this situation.

A second known method, which is used more commonly in a wireless environment,involves new standards for controlling the content being delivered to the handheld viewingdevice. One such new standard is HDML, which was intended to replace the universallyaccepted HTML format for delivering content to handheld viewers. This approach hassome industry backing, but fails to allow users access to all Internet and Intranetinformation.

Another known method for solving the wireless Internet content problem is to"spoof' the Inter-network Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) so thatthey partially work over the wireless link. This "spoofing" method, however, often leadsto a failure of both the protocols and the device to display all the information.

Alternatively, several attempts have been made at using a wireless proxy to eliminateusing both TCP and IP over the wireless network. A wireless proxy is a computer thatterminates a TCP/IP connection on one end and a wireless connection on the other end.The most common use of a proxy is as a TCP/IP "firewall," which is used in mostcompanies' networks today. This proxy method removes the TCP/IP protocol from running over the wireless network, but leaves the actual data transferred untouched. This type ofproxy has limited ability to further limit the higher-level information being sent to the user,and in particular the bandwidth heavy graphics and multimedia files embedded in most webpages.

Still another known method for limiting information sent to a portable viewingdevice is to have users pre-define the information sites they intend to access using theirportable viewing device. In this method, a user must pick, ahead of time, every site to beaccessed and must select the information to be transferred when connecting with thewireless viewer. This selection is typically done on a large desktop computer system, wherevisibility, memory, CPU speed and keyboard input are not restricted. The challenge for theuser, however, is to have foreknowledge of every site to be accessed. This method thus fallsshort of offering the user a general-purpose browser for a wireless device, in which the usermaintains dynamic control over what information is transmitted to the wireless devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and method for transporting user-restricted data from a gateway deviceto a handheld viewing device is provided. The gateway device includes an informationtranslator, content filters and storage. The information translator delivers content to thegateway device from an information database coupled to the gateway via a network. Aviewing component of the handheld device receives from the gateway device all possibledata that the handheld device is capable of viewing. The user is able to manually selectcertain portions of data through a user interface in the handheld device, the selected portionscorresponding to information that the user does not want to view during a subsequent retrieval of the same data. Once the selection is complete, a series of command instructionsare returned to the gateway device from the handheld device so that a subsequent viewingcorresponds only to that information that was not selected by the user. Alternatively, theuser could select only that portion of data that the user wants to view during a subsequentdownload. In this latter situation, the command instruction transmitted to the gatewaywould instruct the gateway to filter all information except for the selected data.

The invention provides control over viewed content or information from anydatabase. This control is based on commands stored in the gateway device. The commandslimit the quantity of information sent to the handheld device. This functionality isaccomplished by first establishing a set of information (or content) that is going to berestricted by the user. Then, the handheld device performs an editing function to restrict theinformation received. This editing process causes a set of commands to be passed back tothe gateway device to restrict subsequent or future retrievals of the same information. Thegateway device identifies the subsequent information request and performs the necessaryfiltering in order to restrict the information sent to the handheld device.

As will be appreciated, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments,and its several details are capable of modifications in various respects, all without departingfrom the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description of the preferredembodiment are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of theaccompanying drawings, where:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the components in the gateway and handheld device ina preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of the components in the gateway andhandheld device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a dynamic filtering process according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a graphical user interface (GUI) display on the handheld device ofFIG. 1 during a first and second stage of the restricting process according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram that illustrates the method performed by the handhelddevice according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that illustrates the method performed by the gateway deviceaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows asystem 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.Thissystem 10 includes a database orinformation source 12 coupled to acontrol device14. Theinformation source 12 could be an Internet site, an Intranet site, a database engine,or even a local system. Thecontrol device 14 in the preferred embodiment is a gatewayhost device. Thegateway device 14 includes aninformation translator 16 and a contentfilter andstorage area 18. Anetwork connection 20 couples thegateway device 14 to auser interface andviewing device 22, preferably a wireless handheld viewing device. Thehandheld viewing device 22 includes an information decoder andpresentation component 24, and an information viewer anduser interface 26. Thenetwork 20 is preferably awireless packet data network, such as Mobitex™ or DataTAC™, which has limitedbandwidth capabilities, although it could be many other types of networks.

In a preferred embodiment, the handheld device is a BlackBerry™ or anInter@ctive™ Pager manufactured by Research In Motion Limited. However, the presentinvention may be incorporated into other handheld devices or wireless transceivers, such astwo-way paging computers, personal digital assistants ("PDAs"), portable electronicmessaging devices, celluar phones, or handheld e-mail clients. Further, in the preferredembodiment, thegateway device 14 andhandheld device 22 may be implemented utilizingeither a software-programmable digital signal processor (DSP) or a programmable logicdevice.

In thissystem 10, theinformation source 12 is a repository of the information thatthe user of the handheld device desires to access for display. Aninformation translator 16,such as a proxy server, is used as a gateway to accept a connection from thenetwork 20,and in turn to make a connection to theinformation source 12 to retrieve the informationdesired. Preferably, the connection between theinformation translator 16 and theinformation source is a TCP/IP connection and the information source is a web servercontaining a plurality of web pages. As is known in the art, a proxy accepts a connectionfrom a device and opens another connection on behalf of the device to allow the device tocommunicate with other devices or systems indirectly. To assist theinformation translator16 in its task of getting information and preparing it for transmission to thehandheld device22, a content filter andstorage area 18 is provided, which is coupled to theinformationtranslator 16. The content filter andstorage area 18 can be located on the same machine as theinformation translator 16, in another location across a local area network (LAN), oreven in a node cluster of fault tolerant storage device.

Communication across thenetwork connection 20 is facilitated on thehandhelddevice 22 by the information decoder andpresentation device 24. Thisdevice 24 convertsrequests from the user into signals that are transmitted across thenetwork connection 20and understood by thegateway device 14. The information decoder component of thedevice 24 also uses a control channel to thegateway 14 for facilitating the exchange ofspecial requests, such as the information restriction commands, as described in more detailbelow. The presentation component of thedevice 24 prepares the information for displayto the user, and interprets special formatting commands within the data stream for theinformation viewer anduser interface 26. The information viewer anduser interface 26 isdirectly accessed by the user, and accepts keystrokes and screen movement commandsduring the information request phase and the information reception phase.

A more detailed view of thegateway device 14 andhandheld device 22 is shown inFIG. 2. Theinformation translator 16 is coupled to, and communicates with the target website and other information sources database 12' through a Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP) fetch andcache component 16A. The target web sites and other informationsources database 12' can be a range of computers, computer systems, and networks. Forexample, the information can be stored in local databases, on an Intranet, or on the Internet.Theinformation translator 16 further includes a filter and transformation engine 16B, acompression andencryption support module 16C and a wireless transport layer 16D. If theinformation is not compressed and/or encrypted, then the compression andencryption support module 16C may be omitted. A wireless delivery methods module 30 is coupledto the wireless transport layer 16D.

As seen in FIG. 2, a wireless network 20' couples the wireless delivery methodsmodule 30 in thegateway device 14 to a handheld radio code andwireless support module32 in thehandheld device 22. This handheld radio code andwireless support module 32 iscoupled to the information decoder andpresentation device 24 through awireless transportlayer 24A. The information decoder andpresentation device 24 further includes acompression andencryption support module 24B and a byte-code interpreter anddecoder24C. If the information is not compressed and/or encrypted, then the compression andencryption support module 24B may be omitted. An editor and browserscreen supportmodule 26A in the information viewer anduser interface 26 is coupled to the byte-codeinterpreter anddecoder 24C. Additional components of the information viewer anduserinterface 26 include a user input and keyboard support module 26B.

Theinformation translator 16 may include an HTTP fetch andcache component16A, which is standard in the Internet industry. In other implementations, thismachine 16could include an Application Programming Interface (API) method for accessing localdatabase files, directory LAN information and corporate data, or could include othermethods of retrieving information. The filter and transformation engine 16B operativelyperforms a filtering process and information fetch and restrict method, described hereinafterwith reference to FIGs. 3 and 5-6. This engine 16B allows thehandheld device 22 todynamically update a plurality of information filters to match the user's requirements for thetransmitted information. The compression andencryption support module 16C is providedto allow for compression and encryption on the data before it is given to the wireless transport layer 16D. This compression andencryption support module 16C may optionallybe omitted from theinformation translator 16. The wireless transport layer 16D is requiredto deliver the filtered (and compressed and/or encrypted) information to the user. Thetransport layer 16D also ensures that multiple packets are sent and received securely withoutdamage or loss of the information.

The wireless delivery methods module 30 in thegateway device 14 and thecorresponding handheld radio code andwireless support module 32 in the handheld device22 (on either end of the wireless connection) provide the protocol information for thenetwork packet formats and delivery methods of the particular wireless network 20'.

In thehandheld device 22, thewireless transport layer 24A matches the wirelesstransport layer 16D on thegateway device 14. Bothtransport layers 24A and 16D must bepresent for end-to-end reliable delivery of information. When compression and encryptionare used, the compression andencryption support module 24B in thehandheld device 22matches up with the gateway devices' compression andencryption support component 16C.The byte-code interpreter anddecoder 24C operates to undo all the filtering and encodingpreformed on the information by thegateway device 14. Once thiscomponent 24C hasprocessed the information, the information can be passed up for display and user interactionin the information viewer anduser interface 26.

When information arrives at the information viewer anduser interface 26, it isreceived by the editor and browserscreen support module 26A. The editor and browserscreen support module 26A processes the information so that it is presentable to the userin a viewable and readable form. Thiscomponent 26A includes a user interface API forscreen manipulation, special formatting, highlighting, inverse video, and all other capabilities of thehandheld device 22 that might be useful when displaying a large quantity ofinformation in a readable form. The user input and keyboard support module 26B isprovided for the user to input commands to manipulate the data or information.

Turning now to FIG. 3, afilter engine process 90 according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention is set forth. Thisprocess 90 includes afetching stage90A, and first and second parts of a restrictingstage 90B and 90C, respectively. In thisprocess 90, information requests (A) (see also step 306 in FIG. 5) flow into thegatewaydevice 14 during thefetching stage 90A atstep 100. At thisstage 90A thegateway device14 is simply acting as a traditional proxy machine and is taking the request and finding thecorrect information source 12 that can fulfill the request fromstep 100.

The requested information is received at thegateway 14 from theinformation source12 and flows into the first part of the restrictingstage 90B atstep 104. In this part of therestrictingstage 90B, thegateway device 14 performs general filtering, followed by adynamic restriction step using the user's pre-established filters. As shown instep 104 therecould be HTML content, Java content, pictures, graphics, animation and other data typesreceived in the data stream from theinformation source 12. During this initial restrictingstage 90B, advanced HTML commands are stripped atstep 106 to form a data stream offiltered HTML andJava content 108. Then, atstep 110, any Java commands are removedto form a data stream of filteredHTML information 112.

The restrictingstage 90B further comprises the step of applying a user-specific filter114 with filtering commands (C) (see also step 410 in FIG. 6) to further filter thedatastream 112. In thisstep 114, the restrictingstage 90B checks thefilter storage area 124 fora user- defined filter to apply to thedata stream 112. If such a user-defined filter is found, then it is applied to the filtered HTML-only data stream 112 to form a user-filteredcontentdata stream 116. Thisdata stream 116 is then sent to the byte-code converter 24C atstep118 for translation into a format compatible with wireless delivery.

When a user receives a new piece of information and wants to limit what is viewed,the second part of restrictingstage 90C occurs. Keeping in mind that no restricting ofinformation is performed the first time that the data passes through the system, once the userperforms the restricting steps (208-214 in FIG. 4, and 310-324 in FIG. 5) on the handhelddevice, restricting commands (B) are sent to thegateway device 14 for identification atstep120. The commands (C) (see also steps 426 and 428 in FIG. 6) to restrict or un-restrictcontent are provided to thefile storage component 18 atstep 122 for long-term storage ona disk and/ormemory 124. These commands (C) are later retrieved duringstep 114 andapplied in the first part of the restrictingstage 90B, when the user subsequently requests thisinformation.

FIG. 4 shows the sequential graphical user interface (GUI) views during theprocess90. There are two stages shown in FIG. 4, afirst stage 200A in which the information isretrieved, and a second stage 200B, in which the information is restricted. During thefirststage 200A, the information is retrieved by the user through the e-mail interface as shownin 202. In this screen, a link to the information is shown in bold within the context of otherinformation. The user then selects to follow the link as shown in 204. This causes a requestto be sent to thegateway device 14. Thescreen 206 is then displayed to indicate a requestis pending, since it could take seconds or minutes to get the information over the network.

Once the information has been received, it is displayed in an information browser-likeformat 208. At any time the user can select the menu and pick the "Start Marking"menu item, as seen in 210, and begin the second stage 200B - the information restrictionstage. During the restriction stage 200B, the user positions a moveable cursor across theinformation to be restricted, such as line of text, or a particular graphic, as seen in 212. Asthe cursor is dragged across the text, it changes the appearance of the information so thatthe user can visually identify the information selected for restriction. Once a delete key, orsome other command key is pressed, the information is restricted from the current view, asseen in 214. The user then continues to scan the received data to determine whether otherinformation should be similarly restricted. Once the user exits thisscreen 214, or selects amenu to close this screen, a series of restriction commands associated with the restrictedinformation are sent to thegateway device 14. These restriction commands are used by thegateway to determine whether or not to subsequently send certain information elements ofthe requested information.

During the viewing of the screens 202-214 in FIG. 4, the basic e-mail presents theUniversal Resource Locator (URL) link as bold faced characters, as seen in 202. When thecursor is positioned on any character of the URL link, the enter key can be used as a hot keyfor jumping to the link. Otherwise, if the user presses a roller wheel (or some otherselection mechanism) of the handheld device, while on any URL link, a new default itemappears as seen in 204. In the case where the user is positioned on a URL link, thecommand "Follow the Link" is the default, as seen in 204. This is similar to attachmentprocessing when the user is positioned on an attachment and the "Open Attachment" menuoption is the default. To identify the URL link, the e-mail server scans all message bodies and looks for HTTP or WWW identifiers with other special characters such as"//", "/", and".".

Thefetching screen 206 appears when the interface is invoked from the messageview, or when the user selects the "Follow the Link" menu option in 204. In this case theprogram has requested the URL and is waiting for it to be returned. If the user is fetchinga random URL, then the program prompts for the URL name before issuing the fetch. Onceinformation arrives into the browser, a notification tone is played following a userconfigured setting. This setting is different from the message list so the user can determineif e-mail or Internet traffic has arrived.

In a normal viewing mode of the message the user is simply moving the cursoracross the displayed information as if viewing an e-mail message. Full link names are notshown, only small indicators to make the information more readable. Invoking themenu210 provides the option of marking the information to be restricted in future fetches of theinformation. The user can also follow a link, if the cursor is on a link, or expand or shrinklink names for readability.

When in the restricting stage 200B, the restricting commands used by thehandhelddevice 22 to filter content use the original section identifier sent by theinformationtranslator 16. In the creation of the original text, each section of the HTML page, eithereach line or paragraph, is given a tag or a section identifier.

When the user is in the "marking mode" 212, the marked region jumps in sectionsboundaries, as defined by the original section identifiers sent by theinformation translator16. In the marking mode, the user marks a section and presses the backspace key or 'ALT'Backspace key to remove the information. The user can also press the "Enter" key to delete the text or the backspace key since this is the default. After the user performs theseoperations on the sections to be deleted, including any links, the user can select the menuand pick the "Send Restrictions" menu item. This sends a command with the deleted"sections" to theinformation translator 16 for restriction the next time this information pageis requested. At any time while viewing the information on thehandheld device 22, the usercan also select the "Unrestricted Information" menu item and remove any restrictioncommands that might exist on theinformation translator 16.

FIG. 5 shows thepreferred method 300 under which thehandheld device 22operates to provide the user with the ability to restrict information received from thegateway 14. The method includes two stages: aninformation request stage 300A and aninformation restriction stage 300B. The user first decides whether or not to viewinformation atstep 302. In the preferred embodiment, this information is Internet-based orIntranet-based information. The user enters a request, preferably by entering a URL on theuser input and keyboard support module 26B, which is provided to theinformation decoder24C for preparation and formatting atstep 304 to thegateway device 14. Once theformatting is complete, the request is transmitted to thegateway device 14 atstep 306 viathenetwork connection 20/20'.

Some time later, thegateway device 14 transmits the information atstep 308 to thehandheld device 22. The information is decoded and presented to the user atstep 310 bythe information decoder andpresentation component 24. By using theuser interface 26, theuser preferably scrolls through the information searching for undesired sections atstep 312.The user can enter a scanning termination sequence atstep 314, which is either exiting theinformation screen or a menu choice. While viewing the information, the user can remove information from the screen atstep 316 using deletion commands provided by the userinterface andkeyboard 26. Each time a section of data is selected it is tagged and labeledas having been removed atstep 318. A corresponding restriction command willsubsequently be sent to the gateway device 14 (step 324) so that the tagged information willbe automatically removed from the same information if a subsequent request occurs.

Once the user has completed an information scan and restriction in steps 314-318,the system then determines whether the user wants to "un-restrict" some range ofinformation that was previously restricted atstep 320. If so, then theinformation decoder24 prepares the correct command sequence and sends it to thegateway device 14 atstep322 for execution. Otherwise, theuser interface 26 determines if there are any restrictingcommands present atstep 324. If so, then the commands are prepared and sent to thegateway device 14 atstep 328. If not, then no action is performed and hence no actions aresent to thegateway device 14 atstep 326.

FIG. 6 shows apreferred method 400 of operation that thegateway device 14performs to enable the user to dynamically restrict information sent to thehandheld device22. Themethod 400 includes two stages: a fetchingstage 400A and a restricting stage400B. As originally described in FIG. 3, and shown again in FIG. 5, information requestsarrive from the user atstep 402 and are given to thegateway device 14 for processing.Information requests are prepared and given to the information source atstep 404. In thepreferred embodiment, this source is typically a web site and the TCP/IP protocol is usedto transport the information.

After this request for information, theinformation source 12/12' returns theinformation atstep 406 over the Internet or Intranet to thegateway device 14 that requested the information on behalf of the user of thehandheld device 22. Once the information hasbeen received, thegateway device 14 checks to see if there is a user filter that matches thehandheld device 22 and information reference number URL atstep 408. If a match is found,then the user filter commands are applied to the information atstep 410, which results inportions of the information being deleted from the data stream. This information is then sentto thehandheld device 22 atstep 410, with the selected information removed. If there areno user filters that match the information being given to this user, the information is sentalong as is to thehandheld device 22 atstep 412. As shown in FIG. 3, other automaticfiltering operations can also be performed on the information to remove bandwidth-intensiveelements, such as graphics and animations.

Step 414 in FIG. 6 sets forth the beginning of the restricting stage 400B, in whichthegateway 14 receives commands from the user that are used to affect user filters. Thefirst check in thegateway device 14 is to determine if the command is for an unrestrictionrequest atstep 416. If so, then the restriction commands are found and deleted fromstorage18/124 or marked as temporarily inactive atstep 418. If not, then the system checks to seeif the command is a content restriction command list atstep 420. If it is not, then the systemchecks to see if the command is some other command atstep 422. If the command is a newcontent restriction command list atstep 420, then thegateway device 14 checks to see ifthere is already a stored set of restriction commands for this same information page atstep424. If there is not, then the command information is saved atstep 426 in theinformationstorage area 18/124 for later retrieval when the user requests the same information page.Otherwise, a merge of the previous commands and the new commands is performed atstep 428, and the resulting merged set of restriction commands are saved in thestorage area18/124 for later retrieval when the user requests the same information page.

The invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments. Thoseskilled in the art will perceive improvements, changes, and modifications. Suchimprovements, changes and modifications are intended to be covered by the appendedclaims.

Claims (26)

1. A system comprising:

   a source of information;

   a gateway device coupled to the source of information and configured to control aflow of information from the source of information; and

   a handheld device coupled to the gateway device for receiving the information, thehandheld device configured to transmit control signals to the gateway device so that thegateway device restricts the information that is transmitted to the handheld device.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway device comprises:

   an information translator coupled between the source of information and thehandheld device; and

   a filter and memory coupled to the information translator.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the information translator comprises:

   a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) fetch and cache coupled to the source ofinformation;

   a filter and transformation engine coupled to the HTTP fetch and cache; and

   a wireless transport layer coupled between the filter and transformation engine andthe handheld device.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the information translator further comprises acompression and encryption support module coupled between the filter and transformationengine and the wireless transport layer.
5. The system of claim 2, wherein the gateway device further comprises a wirelessdelivery methods component coupled between the information translator and the handhelddevice.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the handheld device comprises:

   an information decoder and presentation component coupled to the gateway device;and

   an information viewer and user interface coupled to the information decoder andpresentation component.
7. , The system of claim 6, wherein the information decoder and presentation componentcomprises:

   a wireless transport layer coupled to the gateway device; and

   a byte-code interpreter and decoder coupled between the wireless transport layer andthe information viewer and user interface.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the information decoder and presentation componentfurther comprises a compression and encryption support module coupled between thewireless transport layer and the byte-code interpreter and decoder.
9. The system of claim 6, wherein the information viewer and user interface comprises:

   an editor and browser screen support module coupled to the information decoderand presentation component; and

   a user input and keyboard support module coupled to the editor and browser screensupport module.
10. The system of claim 6, wherein the handheld device further comprises a handheldradio code and wireless support module coupled between the information decoder andpresentation component and the gateway device.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein the source of information is an Internet source.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein the source of information is an Intranet source.
13. The system of claim 1, wherein the source of information is a database.
14. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway is configured to dynamically restrict theinformation such that only user defined sections of the information are viewed on thehandheld device, wherein the user defined sections are based on the control signals from thehandheld device.
15. A system for dynamically filtering user-defined sections of data, comprising:

    a database configured to store data;

    a control device configured to perform dynamic filtering of a user defined sectionof a data set received from the database; and

    a user interface and viewing device remotely coupled to the control device, the userinterface and viewing device being configured to convert user input to filter signals and totransmit the filter signals to the control device so that the interface and viewing devicesubsequently displays filtered data.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the database stores textual and graphical data, andwherein the control device is configured to use the filter signal to dynamically filter userdefined sections of the textual and graphical data.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein:

    the control device is a gateway device;

    the user interface and viewing device is a wireless handheld viewing device; and

    the data is Internet data.
18. A method comprising the steps of:

    a) requesting data through a wireless device coupled to a host device;

    b) receiving the requested data at the host device from an information source;

    c) filtering the received data using a predetermined set of filters;

    d) filtering the received data using a dynamic filter based on user-defined criteriatransmitted to the host device from the wireless device;

    e) transmitting the filtered data from the host device to the wireless device; and

    f) displaying the filtered data on the wireless device.
19. The method according to claim 18, wherein step (d) includes the steps of:

    d1) receiving data at the wireless device;

    d2) displaying the received data;

    d3) storing user input based on the displayed data;

    d4) converting the stored user input into the user-defined filter criteria;

    d5) transmitting the user-defined filter criteria to the host device; and

    d6) storing the dynamic filtering criteria at the host device.
20. A method of controlling viewed information retrieved from a database based oncommands stored in a gateway device to limit the quantity of information sent to a handhelddevice comprising the steps of:

    establishing a set of information or content to be restricted by a user;

    performing an action in the handheld device to restrict the information receivedbased on a special editing command;

    passing a set of commands to the gateway device to restrict future retrievals ofsubstantially identical information as the set of information;

    identifying the substantially identical information using the gateway device; and

    performing filtering when subsequent retrievals of the identical information occurs.
21. A method comprising the steps of:

    fetching information from an information source;

    restricting the fetched information using fixed criteria; and

    restricting the fetched information using dynamic user defined criteria.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the fetching step comprises the steps of:

    determining if the information matches reference information corresponding to apredetermined filter, wherein:

    if the information does not match the reference information all the information is sentto a user; and

    if the information matches the reference information the predetermined filtercommands are applied to the information such that the information sent to the user is userdefined sections of the information.
23. The method of claim 21, wherein the restricting stage comprises the steps of:

    receiving commands from a user via a user interface;

    determining if the command is an unrestricted request, wherein:

    if the command is an unrestricted request all previous restriction commands relatingto desired information are deleted or marked as temporarily inactive; and

    if the command is not an unrestricted request then determining if the command isanother predetermined type of command.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein, if the command is not an unrestricted request,performing the steps of:

    determining whether the predetermined type of command is a command restrictioncommand list, wherein:

    if the predetermined type of command is a restriction command list checking forpreviously stored commands present for the user and the desired information; and

    if the predetermined type of command is not a restriction command list checking forother commands from the user.
25. A system for limiting data transmitted to a wireless handheld viewing device froma gateway device comprising:

    means for delivering data from an information database coupled to the gatewaydevice to the wireless handheld viewing device;

    means for receiving all possible data from the gateway device that the wirelesshandheld viewing device is capable of displaying;

    means for manually selecting exact portions of data that are of importance througha user interface in the wireless handheld viewing device, the means for selecting beingconfigured such that once the selection is complete a series of instructions are returned tothe gateway device from the wireless handheld viewing device so that during a subsequentviewing the user sees only those pieces they are interested in seeing.
26. A system comprising:

    a source of information signals;

    a viewing device configured to receive and provide a display corresponding to saidinformation signals, said viewing device being further configured to edit selected portions of said display in response to user input, and to generate editing control signals indicativeof said user input; and

    a gateway device configured to respond to said editing control signals by editinginformation transmitted from said source to said viewing device in accordance with saidediting control signals.

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